"Hyundai's Sonata NF costs W25 million (US$1=W923) in Korea, while it costs W16 million in the U.S. Doesn't this mean that it is either too expensive in Korea or too cheap in the U.S.? I hope the commission takes this opportunity to make a decision on the issue," Choi wrote in his complaint.

Kim Ja-hye, secretary-general of Consumers Korea, said her organization has received numerous complaints claiming that Korean cars are overpriced or pointing out that they cost more in Korea than overseas. Although prices are determined by the laws of demand and supply, businesses should try to keep them at reasonable levels, Kim said.

The FTC has issued several warnings to Hyundai Automotive Group on the issue. In a briefing on its regulations on unfair business activities in January, the commission distributed a document which said that Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have greatly increased their prices for small and mid-sized cars since they came to have a near monopoly in those markets with their merger in 1998. At the same time the automotive group lowered the prices of large cars which had to compete with imported cars, the FTC said in the document.  This, as a result, has imposed a greater burden on consumers with lower incomes, the FTC added.

"It's clear that consumers have become the victims in an automotive market stuck in a monopolistic structure," an FTC official said Tuesday. He indicated that the commission believes that it is inevitable that the two companies will face disciplinary measures of one sort or another. The FTC will likely reach a conclusion on the issue in the first half of next year.

(englishnews@chosun.com )